A Bittersweet Journey
by Anon Fishy-chan
Summary: After King Candy's death and Vanellope's rightful ascension to the "Sugar Rush" throne, the "Palette Swap" racers mysteriously disappear! Jubileena, upset by the absence of Citrusella, decides to make a journey-both outside her game and into the depths of it- in order to find a way to bring back her best friend. DISCONTINUED
1. Jubileena's Observation

_**Disclaimer: The absolutely fabulous animated film "Wreck-it-Ralph", and all the characters from it belong to Disney, and not me in any way. This is simply a story written as a homage to the original work.**_

* * *

**A Bittersweet Journey**

**Chapter 1: Jubileena's Observation **

After the fall of King Candy, the game of _Sugar Rush_ was truly peaceful again. Princess… well _President_ Vanellope von Schweetz had returned as its rightful ruler, and things were now how they were supposed to be.

Instead of having a random roster race every evening, President Vanellope decreed that names would be chosen by a lottery so that things would be fairer, and everyone rejoiced.

Jubileena, however, noticed something was quite off. There were now only eleven racers instead of fifteen. Nougetsia, Torvald, Sticky, and Citrusella, had all disappeared. All the racers who were palette swaps of other racers—were gone.

She decided to keep silent about this, waiting to see if any of the other _Sugar Rush_ characters would notice. A few days passed, but it appeared that no one ever did. The only thing anyone seemed to notice was that she wasn't doing as well in the races as she normally did.

One morning, before the race, Taffyta walked up to Jubileena, as smug as ever.

"Heh," she sneered, "Has Vanellope's glitching got to you?"

"Well, Taffyta," Jubileena replied, "Are you trying to get her to execute you by making that comment?"

Taffyta simply rolled her eyes and walked off.

"Don't worry, Jubileena!" Candlehead exclaimed, "Taffyta's probably just trying to show her concern… you know… she's like… worried that you've been last place in every race for the past three days!"

That comment just made Jubileena more dejected,

"Oh… it's been three days already?" She sat down in a stand and sighed.

Candlehead nodded briskly, and then sat down beside Jubileena.

"So… what's wrong, Jubes?" she asked, concerned.

Jubileena normally hated it when the other racers called her "Jubes", but today she was too downcast to even nag Candlehead.

"Candlehead, do you remember the palette-swap characters?" she asked.

"Palette-swap characters?"

"You know… Nougetsia, Torvald, Sticky… my best friend Citrusella…"

There was a long pause as Candlehead searched through her memory.

"Oh… those people… " Candlehead said, after a few seconds of thinking, "I never thought of them as being palette-swaps, I just thought they had a really unoriginal sense of fashion!"

"Um…okay then…" Jubileena mumbled.

"So, what about them?"

Jubileena took a deep breath, and looked at Candlehead sadly.

"They disappeared."

There was another pause, as Candlehead was trying to digest the information.

"OMG you're right…. THEY DID!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Jubileena looked down. A tear formed in the corner of her eye.

"It's really scary, you know… I mean, one day Citrusella was here. We did so much together… we were like sisters, no… twins! We could just look at each other and be able to read each other's thoughts. She was the only person who ever understood why I loved strawberry jam but loathed raspberry, and why I hated to be called 'Jubes', and…"

Suddenly, Sour Bill's apathetic voice blasted through the speakers.

"Racers take your places. The first race of the day is about to start."

"Oh great, I have to race again today…" Jubileena grumbled.

"No!" shouted Candlehead, "You can sit out, and I'll take your place, okay? It's sooooooo obvious that you're stressed out! You need to rest."

She smiled kindly.

"Are you sure, I mean… it might take a while for you to prepare…"

"Nonononono… It won't take me too long to get out my car, and you're not the player character this round, anyways. They can switch the roster pretty quickly."

"Promise?"

"Yup!" Candlehead grinned.

"T-thanks!" Jubileena said, wiping the tear from her eye.

Candlehead gave her a big hug, and then ran off to join the race. Jubileena was left sitting in the stands, with a myriad of living candies. Out of curiosity, she looked around for the other non-participating racer. After wandering a few feet, she found Minty Zaki, not looking particularly happy.

"Um… hey Minty!"

Jubileena made a slightly awkward wave.

"Hi," Minty said, still looking irritated.

"So—" Jubileena said, only to have Minty interrupt her.

"I heard what you told Candlehead,"

"Oh that…"

"Look," Minty said, gripping Jubileena's shoulders tightly and looking her in the eyes "The palette swaps disappeared because, like King Candy, they just don't belong in the game, okay? I don't know why, and probably no one does, but they no longer exist because they're _not _supposed to! Things are how they're supposed to be now, and you have to learn to live with that!"

Jubileena sighed. "I guess so… but … don't you feel a bit bad at all? I mean, they were your fellow racers. And Sticky and Torvald were palette swaps of you! Surely you must've known them somehow…"

"I didn't really know them. Sticky mostly kept to herself and Torvald… I barely talked to him…her…it… wait, was Torvald a boy or a girl? Man, Japanese games are so confusing when it comes to-"

"Umm… I don't know… but that's not the point! The point is that, that they were our… or at least _my_ friends. We can't just let them disappear and not wonder why they're suddenly gone!" shouted Jubileena.

"What is there to wonder? Princess… I mean, _President_ Vanellope somehow set things back the way they're supposed to be, so King Candy and your palette swap friends disappeared!" Minty gruffly crossed her arms and turned away from Jubileena.

"'What is there to wonder?' If you don't even know how President Vanellope reset the game, then there's definitely a lot to wonder!"

"If you're so curious about how she did that," Minty grumbled, "Then why don't you just ask her yourself?"

"FINE!" Jubileena declared, "I WILL!"

Jubileena irately got up, and briskly walked to another seat, far away from Minty. For the rest of the day, she sat, and thought about the nicest way she could ask Vanellope her question.

* * *

_(A/N: I have not written fanfiction for almost two years! But after watching "Wreck-it-Ralph", I have the urge to write again. This is actually the first chapter of an unfinished fanfic that I wrote over the March Break. I'll most definitely upload the other already-written chapters pretty quickly, but there will probably be a bit of a lag later, when I need to write new chapters (exam time is soon, sadly). I hope you don't mind that I took a few liberties with characterization and the mechanics of the "Wreck-it-Ralph" world, though I suppose the things I am playing around with are still plausible by what's been provided in canon. Anyways, please add this to your favourites, follow, and review! Encouragement is always great, and I thank you in advance if you do!) _


	2. A Meeting with The President

**A Bittersweet Journey**

**Chapter 2: A Meeting with The President**

Finally, evening arrived, and it was time for all the racers to rest for the day. As soon as everyone had packed up and started to head home, Jubileena ran to talk to Vanellope.

"President Vanellope!" Jubileena yelled, running up to her.

"Yes Jubles?" said Vanellope playfully.

Jubileena felt like groaning as soon as she heard that nickname, but she didn't, since she did not want to disrespect her ruler. She just got straight to her question, forgetting all the nice ways of asking it that she had thought of earlier that day.

"President Vanellope, I'm wondering… why exactly did King Candy disappear, and what happened to the palette swaps and—"

"Ah… my dear subject… that's a very good story indeed, but it might take me a while to tell it to you."

Vanellope and Jubileena started to walk together towards their homes, and Vanellope commenced her story:

"Once upon a time, there was a race game called 'Turbo', and the main character was a guy called—"

Jubileena interrupted. "Oh… I know that story! King Candy once told it to us!"

"Of course he knew that story, " Vanellope said. She tried to make a scary face. "He WAS Turbo!"

"Come onnnnnn…" Jubileena said, "That's sound like some lame horror story Crumbelina would tell at one of her sleepovers…"

Vanellope looked a bit sad hearing about Crumbelina's sleepovers, as she had yet to be invited to one. However, her expression quickly shifted to a more insistent one.

"I'm not making this up!" she professed, "After his game got unplugged, Turbo disguised himself as King Candy and took over_ Sugar Rush_! He then went into the code and tried to delete me so that he could be the best racer in the land. But he epically failed to do that, so he locked up everyone's memories instead,"

"So THAT's why we all forgot you were our ruler…" Jubileena uttered in awe.

"Yeah, so anyways, things probably would've stayed that way… with King Candy ruling us and all, but this cool dude named Ralph showed up one day and changed everything!"

"Ralph?"

"Wreck-it Ralph, from _Fix-it-Felix Jr._ You know, that game with the handyman who fixes the building that's wrecked by this big guy…"

"So what did Wreck-it Ralph actually do? Wreck everything?" Jubileena laughed.

"No. Long story short, he realized that I was supposed to be a character in this game. He helped me build this _awesome_ car so I could race in the Random Roster race. During that race, when I was neck-in-neck with King Candy, but I made him start to glitch, so he revealed himself as Turbo!"

This story was more intriguing than Jubileena thought it would be.

"How did you guys reset the game?"

"Basically, Ralph and I _crushed _Turbo, and I drove my car across the finish line, which reset everything to how it's supposed to be!"

"So… how exactly did that cause Citrusella and Nougetsia and Torvald and Sticky to disappear?" Jubileena asked.

Vanellope thought for a moment.

"To be honest, Jubles, I don't know. It's likely that when King Candy went into the code, he created them. He probably wanted to make the competition bigger so that I'd be more afraid to enter the Random Roster race or something."

Jubileena was saddened by her words, but Vanellope immediately tried to comfort her.

"I know that you and Citrusella were best friends. Just the thought of losing my pal Ralph makes me feel glum. In fact, once I almost _did_ lose him, when we were fighting King Candy," she said, thinking of when Ralph was falling into the Diet Cola Hot Springs, "But I saved Ralph, so I'm sure that if you want to save Citrusella and your… _our_ palette swap buddies, you can."

Vanellope's optimism made Jubileena's despair become hope.

"Thank you…" she replied, "Do you know how King Candy got into the code?"

"My pleasure, dear subject. And nope, though Fix-it Felix would totally know. He managed to put those guys from _Q*bert_ into the code of his game so that they wouldn't be able to die there. I think both our games are made by the same company, so you can probably get into our code the same way he got into his."

"Okay… thanks for telling me, _your_ _excellency_." Jubileena smiled.

"No problemo," said Vanellope.

Jubileena headed home. She decided that tomorrow, she would venture into another game for the first time, to ask Fix-it Felix about getting into the code. She knew that would help bring Citrusella back.

* * *

_(A/N: Thanks for all the support you gave me so far, my lovely readers! I really enjoyed (trying) to write in Vanellope's voice. Hopefully I didn't go to far xD.) _


	3. A Revelation (or Two)

**A Bittersweet Journey**

**Chapter 3: A Revelation (or Two)**

It was now late at night. Jubileena was sitting on her bed in her bright red cherry-printed pajamas. She was staring at the bright moon that always shone over _Sugar Rush_. Suddenly, she heard a knock at her door. Jubileena jumped off her bed, and ran towards the door. She was surprised that someone would knock on her door at this time of night.

She looked out the window to check who it was, and when she saw who was standing at her doorstep, she was flabbergasted. It was Citrusella. She was in her pajamas and slippers, but they were much dirtier than usual. Her hair appeared to be sticky, and peppered with little candy pieces like Vanellope's used to be.

Still, Jubileena immediately opened the door, and hugged her—she was simply overjoyed to see her best friend.

"NO!" Citrusella exclaimed.

Before Jubileena could ask what was wrong, she and Citrusella both "glitched", in the way that Vanellope did.

Jubileena could feel the erratic energy race through her body. She instinctively let go of her best friend, who, all of the sudden, disappeared.

"Citrusella… what happened…"

Citrusella then reappeared.

"That's why you can't touch me, Jubileena," Citrusella hung her head in shame, "I'm a glitch… just like Vanellope was… I mean… how everyone _thought_ she was."

Jubileena grabbed Citrusella's hand, and pulled her into her house.

"Sit down," she said, "and tell me what happened."

The two girls sat down on Jubileena's only couch. It was bright red, like many of the other things in Jubileena's home. Citrusella, with her blue hair and her blue blueberry-printed pajamas, looked as out of place as a _Fix-it Felix _character would look in _Hero's Duty_.

Citrusella looked nervously around her, and then whispered.

"When the game got reset by Vanellope… Torvald, Sticky, Nougetsia, and I all turned into 'glitches'. It's probably her getting revenge on us for making fun of her or something…"

Jubileena put her arm around her worried friend.

"President Vanellope isn't that vengeful… and you guys didn't even tease her that much!" she said, "besides, she can't just _turn_ you guys into glitches. She told me that it's most likely that King Candy created you guys or something, so when she reset the game, you palette swaps all started to glitch."

"That's a relief," Citrusella sighed, not sounding fully convinced.

"Well, I'm so happy you're back!" proclaimed Jubileena.

"Jubileena," said Citrusella, "I can't be here for long… you see, unlike Vanellope, whose glitching only made her twitch a little bit, my glitching can cause me to disappear for periods at a time…"

"That doesn't matter," huffed Jubileena defiantly, "as long as you're here."

"That's nice of you to say. But I can't ever race, since I have no idea when this glitch will act up, and… and everyone will make fun of me. Taffyta will be so happy to have another victim now that Vanellope's her ruler, you know?"

She started to cry.

"And maybe one day, I'll just disappear forever…"

Jubileena grabbed Citrusella, and looked into her deep blue eyes.

"No. I'll protect you. I'll make sure that they don't make fun of you. I'll make sure you don't disappear."

A small smile formed on Citrusella's pale face.

"Thank you," she said.

Jubileena hugged her again. The two girls held onto each other tightly.

But then, Citrusella started glitching. She disappeared again. Jubileena was now only grasping onto air. She started to panic.

"Citrusella…? Citrusella! Come back!"

And then suddenly, Jubileena woke up. It was just a dream. Or was it?

She bolted out of bed, but then stopped when she saw a small folded note on her bedside table.

It read:

_"Hi Jubileena! I really was here. You fainted when I disappeared, so when I came back, I made sure to drag you into bed before I vanished again ;P. I hope I can see you again soon! :D – Citrusella"_

"Whatever it takes, I must bring Citrusella back," she whispered to herself.

* * *

After putting on her racing outfit, and eating a breakfast of toast with strawberry jam, Jubileena ran out the door. She felt more energized to race today, now that she knew—or at least thought she knew—what happened to Citrusella, and how to get her to return.

As she was heading to the racetrack, she saw Swizzle Malarkey heading there as well. But instead of looking like his cheerful and confident self, he looked a bit sad.

"Hey Swizzle!" Jubileena shouted, possibly just a little bit too loud.

He stopped, giving her a small smile, instead of his usual big grin.

"Oh hi…"

"Is something on your mind?"

"Yeah… I'm just a bit worried about the disappearance of Sticky and the other recolours…"

Jubileena vaguely remembered seeing Sticky blushing and smiling at him a few times.

"You were pretty close to Sticky, right?" she said.

"You could say that," he replied, trying to laugh a bit, but failing miserably, "I miss her a lot."

"I understand how you feel. I mean, I miss my best friend Citrusella. But Vanellope told me that Fix-it-Felix knows how to get into the code of Tobikomi games like ours, so perhaps if we go into the code, we can find a way to restore the recolours!"

"Jubileena!" Swizzle exclaimed, "Don't you know how dangerous it is to try sneak into code?! There are Oreo guards all around the castle, especially because no one wants a repeat of that incident with… _him_."

Like many a _Sugar Rush_ inhabitant, Swizzle could not bring himself to say the name of his former King.

"I understand that, but Swizzle… do you want Sticky back or not?" she said.

There was a pause, as Swizzle contemplated whether it was worth risking his life to save the girl he cared about most. Of course, because Swizzle, despite how sad he felt at the moment, was always an adventure-loving boy, it didn't take him too long to make up his mind.

"Yes, I do… I'll help you."

"That's great!" Jubileena cheered.

Swizzle smiled. His grin had returned to full size, and it was shining as bright as ever.

"I've been outside of the game before, so I can also make sure that you stay safe while you go out to visit that Felix guy."

"Thanks! That's so nice of you! And you've really been outside of our game?"

"Yup," Swizzle answered, "Just once, with Minty. You can see my name graffiti-ed in Game Central Station, right outside the entrance to _Sugar Rush_," he chuckled lightly.

"That's so cool!"

Jubileena refrained from asking him exactly _why_ he left the game with Minty, fearing that it could make him sad again.

The two young racers resumed walking.

"You know," said Swizzle, "I'm also worried because Minty is more crabby than usual. I know she's not always the most cheerful person around, but after the recolours vanished, she hasn't smiled even once."

Jubileena remembered how bitter Minty had been to her yesterday.

"Yeah… I tried to talk to her about their disappearance yesterday, but she insisted that she didn't care about it because she believed that the recolours weren't supposed to exist, and that they vanished only because Vanellope reset the game."

"Really?" Swizzle replied, in shock, "Normally I would expect her to at least try to be supportive, if not provide you with a whole lot of advice."

"Maybe she secretly misses them too…?" Jubileena wondered, "After all, she's probably just as confused as the rest of us."

"That makes sense. Considering how Minty is, I'm sure that she'd never admit to not knowing anything," said Swizzle, with a hint of laughter.

Soon, Jubileena and Swizzle arrived at the racetrack, and then parted ways, to prepare their cars for the races that day.

Little did they know that Minty had followed been following them, and that she overheard their entire conversation.

Minty sighed sadly. They were right about her. Of course, they didn't know the _other_ reason she was upset and confused. It had to do with the time that she and Swizzle went to Game Central Station together, and with a certain Sticky Wipplesnit.

* * *

_ (A/N: The first part of this chapter, with Citrusella, I wrote over the March break, but I wrote the second part today xD. I made Minty a bit more sympathetic (I think) due to popular demand, and because I realized that I could take an interesting route with her character. The next chapter probably won't be out for a long while, because it's exam time for me soon.) _


	4. Minty Learns That She's Not Quite Minty

**A Bittersweet Journey**

**Chapter 4: Minty Learns That She's Not Quite "Minty"**

For many nights, long before the fall of King Candy and the disappearance of the recolours, Minty had been having strange dreams.

She dreamed that she was racing on the _Sugar Rush_ speedway, that she was winning all the races, and everyone loved her, even the candies that were supposed to be fans of the other racers.

Yet, in her dreams, Minty Zaki was not exactly Minty Zaki. She was transformed into a different girl. Her hair was a darker shade of green, her brown eyes had turned emerald, and her skin was lighter. She had lost her trademark headbow, and instead, she had a chocolate-sprinkled bun at the top of her head and a hairclip that consisted of two large raspberries and a strange pink stick-shaped confection. Her outfit was no longer lime green, but pale pink and black, and it resembled it a kimono. When her fans cheered for her, and whenever anyone spoke to her, they were speaking a strange language she did not understand, calling her a name that was not hers. And the ruler of land was not King Candy, but someone else- a young girl.

When Minty Zaki woke up, she could never remember what exactly was said to her, or what exactly she or her ruler were called, but she always remembered that in her dreams, she was a different girl who inhabited a different version of _Sugar Rush_.

Minty had started to become concerned about these dreams, since they were happening so frequently. She decided to confide in her good friend Swizzle about them, since his easy-going personality always calmed her worries. Lately, though, when she thought of him, her cheeks turned bright red like candy apples, which would prompt her to put her head in her hands and mutter to herself that only idiots get flustered like that.

Despite her changing feelings for him, Minty still thought that Swizzle would be the best person to consult on the matter, since he was (well, in her opinion, anyways) cheerful and kind. As they were walking home from a race, she told Swizzle her story, and he listened attentively. He pondered over what she had said for a few minutes, and then grinned.

"I know what to do!" he exclaimed confidently, "We could go visit _Tapper's_, and ask him about your dreams. I overheard King Candy tell Sour Bill that he knows a lot about how games work and all that jazz, 'cuz he talks with lots of different characters. His place is a pretty popular hangout during afterhours, I guess."

"Swizzle!" Minty shouted, more harshly than she normally would at him, "Are you crazy? Don't you know how dangerous it is to go outside of our game? I mean, who knows what types of nuts are out there? And if we get killed somehow, we'll be GONE FOREVER!"

Swizzle was not offended by her sudden anger.

"Don't worry," he replied, "I'm think that most game characters are pretty good people, and that even villains are like, acting and stuff. I don't believe anyone would hurt us, and nobody can die in _Tapper's_, anyways."

Minty nodded. "I guess you're right…"

"And if anyone tries to mess with us," Swizzle added, "I'll protect you."

Minty looked down at the candy-paved path and blushed.

"Thank you…" she whispered.

Swizzle smiled.

"It's the least I could do for a good friend like you."

Minty couldn't help but look up and smile back at him, but a little part of her felt sad for some reason, too. She didn't know why, so she decided not to think about it. Minty never liked to think too hard about things she didn't know about.

* * *

The two racers went to their homes, and prepared for their upcoming outing.

Minty stuffed her backpack with emergency food and water, some coins, and a candy cane (to hit any potential attackers with). She doubted that Swizzle would be as prepared as she was if disaster struck.

Later that evening, they met by the power outlet, both carrying backpacks. Walking, for the first time, underneath the "Parting is such a sweet sorrow" sign, they boarded the rarely-used train out of _Sugar Rush_.

When they arrived at Game Central Station, Minty was in awe of the myriad of colourful game characters walking about. They were all different shapes and sizes. Some looked like humans, some looked like animals, and others were just strange creatures she couldn't even describe. She grabbed tightly onto Swizzle's arm to make sure that she wouldn't get lost in the crowd. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small, round orange creature, a purple snake, and a few other brightly-coloured critters sitting dejectedly on the ground, holding up a cardboard sign. She could barely make out the words on it to say "GAME UNPLUGGED! PLEASE HELP!" The sight saddened her a bit, so she stopped to get food out of her bag to give to them.

"Minty?" Swizzle asked, "What is it?" Why'd you stop?"

"I saw those poor little guys," she said, pointing to the orange creature and his companions, "So I thought that I'd give them some food."

"That's so sweet of you," Swizzle replied.

"Thanks," Minty mumbled.

She scanned the station, to see if she could still the orange creature, but she could no longer find him in the large crowd of video game characters. She then saw the sign for _Tapper's_ right in front of them. Apparently, it was right beside the _Sugar Rush_ terminal.

"Actually," Minty said, "I think we should just go to _Tapper's_ now, and I'll give them some food when we're heading back. I can't really see them right now, and it could take a while to find them. It's our first priority to go get my questions answered, after all."

Minty was frustrated with herself over what she just said. It sounded so selfish! She had just impressed Swizzle with her kindness, but now she was putting herself before anyone else.

"I'm sorry if that sounds really selfish!" she added, sounding ashamed.

"Not at all," Swizzle consoled her, "You're just being practical. That's one of my favourite things about you."

She smiled at him shyly and blushed yet again, but he didn't notice.

The two racers soon found the entrance to _Tapper's_. Unlike the train to _Sugar Rush_, this train was packed, mostly with tough, manly-looking characters from fighting games and the like.

They found two unoccupied seats and sat down. Minty looked around nervously, but Swizzle was unfazed by the menacing-looking characters that surrounded them. A large, hairy man who was wearing nothing but boots and a red speedo-esque garment took the seat on the other side of Minty.

"Hey little girl!" he said to her as the train had started to move, "You look too young to be here."

She almost screamed, but then realized that the man was probably just as shocked to see someone like her as she was to see someone like him. The man had an aspect of foreignness about his voice, but Minty sensed that it was not the same type that existed in her dreams.

"I-I probably am," she laughed nervously, "But my friend and I, we just needed to ask Mr. Tapper a few questions."

"About what?"

"Well—"

Swizzle cut in.

"Minty here has been having some weird dreams about our game, so she wanted to see if he could help us explain them."

"Makes sense," the large man replied, "Many people tell Mr. Tapper about strange dreams. Mr. Tapper is very good at providing advice."

There was a pause, and then then man chuckled heartily.

"It's good that you kids don't drink yet," he laughed.

Minty and Swizzle laughed with him awkwardly.

The train stopped, and then man quickly hopped off, and cheerfully waved farewell to them.

The two _Sugar Rush_ racers got off more slowly, and navigated their way through the rowdy crowd of _Tapper's_ patrons, in hope of reaching the front counter.

* * *

Soon, a pair of cowboys vacated two seats in the front. Minty and Swizzle dashed to those seats, through a sea of taller game characters that appeared to not see them. The seats were surprisingly high, so Swizzle jumped up on his, and then he pulled Minty up and helped her get onto hers.

"Hey! Mr. Tapper!" shouted Swizzle, "We have something to ask you!"

The aforementioned bartender, who was just handing a full glass to another patron, turned around, surprised to hear such a youthful voice in his establishment. He rushed over to Swizzle and Minty, and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry kids, but I don't serve root beer," he said sarcastically.

" I know," Minty replied snappily, "Or else the sign would've said 'Root Beer Tapper'".

"Indeed," he grumbled, "So what do you want to ask me, then?"

"Well," Swizzle answered, "My friend Minty here, she's been having strange dreams about our game…"

Tapper interrupted. "You kids are from _Sugar Rush_, right?"

"Yeah," they said in unison.

"Hmmm…" he looked at them sadly and whispered, "I was just thinking…"

"What is it?" Minty asked him.

"Nothing important. I was just wondering what game you were from, that's all. Anyways, tell me about your dreams."

Minty felt a bit awkward telling a stranger about the dreams she'd been having recently, but she sensed that he was a trustworthy man.

"Well, you see sir, I've been having dreams where I'm living in a different version of _Sugar Rush_ or something. I look different, and I have a different name. The ruler of the land is a young girl instead of King Candy, and everyone is speaking a foreign language. Or at least I think they are, since I can never really understand what they're saying."

Tapper scratched his chin, as he was thinking.

"I've heard many stories like yours before," he said, "You see, Sugar Rush, like many games in this arcade, is an international import. So, the dreams you have are "memories" of the original—in your case, Japanese—version of the game. Even though the American distributors tried to change the game to be more palatable to American tastes, they can't destroy the original code completely without messing up the game, so they just leave it there and 'cover it up' with the new code. So your dreams are your suppressed 'memories' of your old code."

"I understand." Minty replied.

"Hold it!" Swizzle yelled, "Minty said that our ruler was different in the Japanese version of the game so that means that King Candy-"

"The American distributors probably just changed that, too!" Minty said.

Tapper nodded in agreement.

"That's most likely it…"

"Well, thanks for your help, Mr. Tapper!" exclaimed Minty.

"Thanks!" Swizzle added.

"No problem kids," he replied.

The two young racers jumped off their stools, and ran excitedly towards the exit of _Tapper's._ When they were at the door, they heard Tapper shout.

"Wait! I have one last thing to ask you!"

"Yes?" said Minty and Swizzle in unison.

"Are you happy?"

The two of them looked at him quizzically.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" replied Swizzle.

"Oh… um… I just wanted to check my customer satisfaction!"

He laughed insecurely.

Minty and Swizzle waved goodbye to him, and he waved back.

As he saw the two racers leave, he sighed sadly.

He was one of the few people who knew of Turbo's takeover of _Sugar Rush_. Years ago, Turbo had rambled to him one night about his dreams to be a champion once more, about how he would do anything it took. Tapper had joked that he should invade Sugar Rush, since it was a racing game like _Turbo Time_, and well… let's just say that Turbo took it seriously. After hearing what the kids said, Tapper assumed that Turbo had changed his name to "King Candy" and was now ruling Sugar Rush. He thought that Turbo, being the megalomaniac he was, would have turned the peaceful land into a nightmarish realm. But if those children said they were happy with the way things were, then perhaps he was wrong. Tapper decided to not worry about this any longer. He had glasses to fill and patrons to serve. Certainly, his job should be his first priority—not the affairs of the sugar bowl next door.

* * *

As she and Swizzle were heading back to _Sugar Rush_, Minty made a horrific realization—she was actually a palette swap of Torvald or Sticky. For all these years, everyone had been treating Minty like she was, well, the original Minty Zaki, but in fact—she was a mere recolour. She was just a copy of Sticky Wipplesnit or Torvald Batterbutter. This thought upset her so much that she forgot to donate food to that orange creature and his friends.

As they were by the entrance to the _Sugar Rush_ train, Swizzle saw that she was upset.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I was just thinking that I'm only a recolour of Sticky or—"

"There's nothing wrong with that!" Swizzle declared, "Sticky is a cute girl! Why should you be ashamed of looking like her?"

Minty noticed that his cheeks turned red as he said that last part. Did he like Sticky? That thought was like a Mento™, and she was diet cola. It made her want to explode with anger, even though it really shouldn't have.

"It's not about how I look or anything like that!" she argued, "It's just that—well, I'm not original! And if Mr. Tapper is right, then I'm not even who I'm supposed to be! I feel as if I've lost my sense of identity!"

"I see," Swizzle whispered, more sadly than he usually would.

He didn't say anything more. He simply grabbed his backpack, and took out a can of spray paint.

"What are you doing?" Minty asked him.

"I'm just… leaving my mark!"

He opened the spray can and grinned, and then ran up to the wall and sprayed paint out of it, forming letters. When he was done, he stepped back to admire his masterpiece.

Minty raised an eyebrow and laughed.

"You wrote 'The Swizz'? Really?"

"It's my nickname!" he insisted.

"Only you call yourself that!" she shot back.

"No! Sticky calls me that, too!"

"Oh…" Minty whispered, "I guess that's why that nickname is important to you, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"You like Sticky a lot…"

"Y-yeah…"

_"Well, I like you a lot!"_ she wanted to say. But she didn't. She wasn't brave enough to embarrass herself by saying something so… so silly.

"I understand," she said simply.

Swizzle put his can of spray paint away, and the two of them boarded the train back to _Sugar Rush_.

* * *

When they arrived back at the game's entrance, they saw King Candy waiting there.

"Children!" he exclaimed, "We've been looking all over for you! The Random Roster Race had to go on without you and…" he did a melodramatic, almost artificial-sounding gasp, "I was so worried!"

"Well, your highness…" Minty stammered, "I—Swizzle and I—went out of the game to ask Mr. Tapper some questions because I was having these strange dreams about the game and—Swizzle told me he knew a lot and—"

"Oh my Henry! That's so unsafe! Imagine if you died outside the game! That would be… quite a disaster."

His tone shifted from concerned to angry, even threatening.

"We'd better close up the train to prevent you kiddies from escaping—and getting hurt!" he said, now sounding a bit too gleeful.

"O-okay…" they both said.

"Now run along home and go to bed! You aren't going to be able to race tomorrow, which is enough of a punishment for you two!"

The two racers followed the orders of their king, and went home.

"I hope they didn't learn too much," King Candy muttered to himself, "Since I locked up their memories as much I could."

* * *

After that incident, the train was indeed closed. But otherwise, until King Candy's defeat, life proceeded as it normally would for Minty and Swizzle.

When Vanellope returned to the throne, Minty was both surprised and disappointed that she looked the same, as she hoped that when the game returned to "factory settings", it meant the original Japanese settings. But, she realized, it probably meant the default _American _settings, because otherwise, they would all be speaking Japanese, which would definitely confuse the arcade visitors, and get the game unplugged. This meant she was doomed to be a Sticky/Torvald palette swap for the rest of her life (well technically _lives_).

But then, when Sticky and Torvald disappeared, and she didn't, Minty felt a sense of security. Now, she really was the one and only "Minty Zaki". The only character in the entire game to resemble her was _herself_. She was her own person. She was no longer a replica of anyone else.

And now, Swizzle could be all hers.

* * *

_ (A/N: Woohoo! An update... with a lame title Q_Q. This is a super long chapter to make up for all the time I've been gone! I hope Zangief and Tapper were in character xD. Also, I'm not sure where I'm going to go with the Sticky x Swizzle x Minty love triangle. I might not fully resolve it since this is supposed to be a Jubileena-centric story, but it'll definitely be touched upon again. Also, I'll probably try to do something with Torvald, Nougetsia, and Adorabeezle soon, and get Ralph and Felix into the picture as well. I don't think Calhoun will make an appearance in this fic, but Vanellope will almost certainly appear again :D )_


	5. Sincerest Apologies

_So… after not working on this fic for a really long time, I've decided to discontinue it. _

_I still love Wreck-it-Ralph, but well, I've moved onto another fandom now, so I just don't have the drive to continue this story any longer. For some good news, I did add an actual cover image! It's a drawing I made myself. You can find it on my DeviantArt account and on my Tumblr (links to both are in my profile). _

_Anyways, I'm not going to leave you guys in suspense about what was supposed to happen, so here's a list of ideas that I had. I was a lot more confident of some of them than of others, so not all of these ideas would've have appeared in the actual story. There will probably be a *few*plot holes because I hadn't worked out the whole story. They aren't completely in chronological order, but I tried my best to have them sort of be._

* * *

**Character Notes:**

- Felix continuously calls Jubileena "sweetie pie" and "darling" and other really cutesy terms which annoys her a lot. He probably does this with the other _Sugar Rush_ kids too.

- Torvald was also not a palette swap of Sticky in the original Japanese game, but rather a palette swap of Swizzle (so he didn't have much of a "canon" personality, making him vulnerable to Turbo's attack). However, in the Japanese game, he, and all the other characters had special "unlockable" outfits, which a player could get from winning races and such. In Torvald's case, his "unlockable" outfit was a yellow Sticky costume. The American distributors, feeling that a cross-dressing male character would not be okay in a game for little girls, changed him to just being a girl. (They didn't just keep him as a guy and get rid of the female outfit because they wanted to have more female characters in the game).

* * *

**The Overall Plot from where I Left Off**

- Jubileena and Swizzle visit _Fix-it Felix Jr_. Jubileena tells him about the disappearance of the palette swaps, and asks him about the code of the game. Unfortunately, Felix tells them that the code for _Sugar Rush_ isn't the same as the one for his game, as _Fix-it Felix Jr._ was created before the Konami Code existed.

- Ralph overhears Jubileena's conversation with Felix, but he doesn't interfere. After Jubileena leaves, he runs up to Felix and says that he's worried that Jubileena might be lying and somehow trying to harm Vanellope. He also says that they should go to_ Sugar Rush _and warn Vanellope/make sure that she's safe. Felix is a bit skeptical of what Ralph says, as he's usually trustful of people, especially cute little girls like Jubileena. Still, he decides to accompany Ralph to _Sugar Rush_, because Vanellope is his friend now, after all, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

- Jubileena asks Adorabeezle about her feelings towards towards Nougetsia. She says that they weren't the closest friends ever, but that she was still rather fond of her, and that they often did various winter sports together. She admits that she misses Nougetsia, and only realized the importance of her company now (since it's not quite the same skiing alone, you know?).

- Adorabeezle is skiing, and she sees Nougetsia "glitching" nearby the slopes. She gets really shocked and ends up losing her balance, and rolling off the hill. She lands at Nougetsia's feet, and asks Nougetsia about what's going on. Nougetsia tells her that she and the other palette swaps have become glitches, and that because of this, all their homes and special racetracks and etc. have disappeared. She says that she suspects that it has something to do with Turbo, but she's not sure. Adorabeezle tells Nougetsia to stay safe, and she goes and tells Jubileena about what she's learned. She agrees to help Jubileena restore the palette swaps.

- Jubileena tells Swizzle what Adorabeezle told her, and Swizzle tells Minty. Minty realizes that it's best to not be selfish, and that she should do whatever it takes to make sure the person she cares about most is happy, even if that means that he can't be "hers".

- Jubileena tells the other _Sugar Rush_ kids about what she's learned, and they all decide to support her in her quest to bring back the palette swaps in some way or another (yes, even Taffyta!).

-Now, my ideas diverge a lot here.

* * *

Idea #1:

- The _Sugar Rush_ racers (sans Vanellope, of course) characters decide to find some way to break into the code room, without telling their ruler. They eventually think up a plan and execute it (which I haven't thought of yet, but it involves Gloyd's pranks somehow). Meanwhile, Ralph and Felix arrive at the Vanellope's palace, only to see that everything is in chaos. Ralph instructs Felix to go warn Vanellope, while he goes to the code room to see if he can prevent Jubileena from reaching it, or at the very least, stop her from getting into the code. The _Sugar Rush_ racers manage to distract the guards long enough, so that Jubileena can reach the locked door (Ralph arrived at the palace too late). She resorts to just pressing random buttons until she figures out the code, but then, Ralph shows up. Jubileena and Ralph end up in some sort of argument filled with misunderstandings. Ralph gets frustrated and raises his fists to "wreck" something. Jubileena thinks it's her, so she runs out of the way… and Ralph ends up smashing the door open! Jubileena gets into the code.

- During all of this, Felix tells Vanellope about what's going on (her guards and royal attendants were too busy trying to deal with the havoc caused by the other _Sugar Rush_ racers to tell her). She's a bit amused and angry, but also impressed by the lengths that they'd go to save their friend, especially considering how bratty they used to be. She decides to make an announcement ordering everyone to stop the ruckus immediately, and she says that she'll handle the situation herself. She goes down to the code room to see what's going on.

Idea #2:

- The _Sugar Rush _racers tell Vanellope what they now know about the disappearance of the Palette Swaps. She decides to let Jubileena enter the code under the supervision of her and her guards. Ralph and Felix arrive at the palace just as Jubileena enters the code, and Vanellope explains the situation to them. They're relieved that Jubileena was telling the truth about what she said.

* * *

**The Climax (my ideas reunite here)**

- Jubileena finds that Turbo's "spirit" is still alive in the code, and it's been messing around with the coding of the palette swaps in order to create himself a new body. He decided to use the palette swaps in particular because they have slightly less data than non-palette swap characters, as they don't (in-universe) have set "canon" personalities, so their data is easier to corrupt.

- The reason he didn't try to destroy Minty's body is because while she appears to be a palette swap of Sticky in the American version of the game, she actually has more data than the average _Sugar Rush_ character, because her palette-swap design was "super-imposed" over her original Japanese design (Minty Sakura). So basically, it would be too much work for him.

- After learning all of this, Jubileena decides that she will let Turbo possess her body if that means saving her friends. Everyone is horrified and amazed that she'd do such a thing, but before they can stop her, Turbo takes over her.

- She comes out of the code room with her eyes flashing between their regular maroon colour, and bright yellow, as her spirit is in conflict with Turbo's for control over her body.

* * *

Now, I planned to have two endings. Which one you consider the "real" one, and which one you consider the "alternate" one depends on your tastes.

**Ending 1:**

- Jubileena's spirit is fighting with Turbo's spirit. She tells him that he'll be disappointed in her, because she was programmed to be a very average racer, and that to her, the most important thing about racing is that it's fun, and that you can make friends from it. As she continues to go on about this, his spirit gets smaller and smaller, as he realizes that his hopes of being a champion again are almost nil (at least, they are considering how Jubileena is putting it). He disappears, and Jubileena regains complete control over her body.

- After Jubileena returns to normal, the palette swaps return, and _Sugar Rush_ is peaceful once again (though it stays in its "American" version, rather than reverting back to its Japanese settings). And of course, Felix fixes the door of the code room with his magic hammer.

**Ending 2:**

- Jubileena wakes up in her own bed, and Turbo's spirit isn't in her body. She runs to Citrusella's house, and Citrusella is alright and everything in Sugar Rush is "normal". She realizes that everything that just happened in the story so far was a dream.

- Then, she finds Vanellope and tells her about her dream. Vanellope laughs and says that it was definitely a strange dream, as the tale of Turbo is just a silly horror story, and that she's never associated with anyone from the _Fix-It Felix Jr_. game. As it turns out, all the events of the Wreck-It Ralph movie were just part of Jubileena's dream, too (or at the very least, "background info" that her dream created).

- The thing with Minty and Swizzle was also part of the dream, obviously. Minty is actually Minty Sakura, and that she never was a palette swap of Sticky Wipplesnit—that was also just a weird mix-up in Jubileena's dream.

* * *

_And so, that's how the story was supposed to be, everyone. I hope you weren't too disappointed, but I can understand if you were. The idea about the Konami Code thing came from Purplewowies, who pointed out that the Konami Code didn't exist in 1982, when Fix-It-Felix Jr. was made. I'm really grateful to everyone who read this story, to those who added it to their favourites and their alerts, and to those who reviewed. Thank you everyone. _


End file.
